THE JEWISH NEWS incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with issue of July 20, 1951 Member American Association of English—Jewish Newspapers, Michigan Press Association, National Editorial Association. Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17100 West Seven Mile Road, Detroit 48235 Mich., VE 8-9364. Subscription $6 a year. Foreign $7. Second Class Postage Paid at Detroit, Michigan SIDNEY SHMARAK CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ PHILIP SLOMOVITZ Advertising Manager Business Manager Editor and Publisher CHARLOTTE HYAMS City Editor Sabbath Scriptural Selections This Sabbath, the 20th day of Shevat, 5725, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues: Isaiah 6:1-7:6; 9:5, 6. Pentateuchal portion: Exod. 18:1-20:23; prophetical portion: Lirhht lrenshen, Friday, Jan. 22, 5:16 p.m. Page 4 VOL. XLVI, No. 22 January 22, 1965 World Zionism and the Diaspora For a number of years, concerned over the attitude of youth towards the Jewish communities whence they stem, anxious to assure an increase in Jewish loyalties and in the assumption of greater responsibility to Jewish causes by Jewish communities every- where, there have been discussions on the question whether Jews and Judaism can sur- vive under freedom. Although there is evident an increase in assimilation, a growth in the rate of inter-. marriage, a decline" ininterest, especially by young Jews, in Jewish matters, we have held to the view that Israel is imperishable, that e may lose some but cannot lose all of Jewry. One does not wipe off any segment of our people, regardless of its status, and there must be confidence in the ultimate sur- vival of our people and the ideals and tradi- tions we have inherited. It is interesting, therefore, that the 26th World Zionist Congress, whose sessions con- cluded in Jerusalem last week, took as its slogan "With the Face to the Diaspora," ex- pressing deep concern over the continued existence of the Jewish people outside the State of Israel. In more than one sense. such an approach, negative in every respect, may be judged as unworthy of a great movement. In dealing with Jewish issues. we must approach all problems with confidence, adhering to faith that the Jewish people cannot and will not be destroyed even by indifference from its own ranks, just as it could not be destroyed by the forces of hatred. We lose adherents and constituents, but we always retain suffi- cient strength to carry on the tasks of a living people that has a spiritual goal and there- fore retains a physical strength to continue its existence. Dealing with the question of survivalism, endorsing what he called the "classical Zion- ist conclusion," Israel's Prime Minister, Levi Eshkol, addressing the Zionist Congress, which has become known as the Jewish peo- ple's parliament, declared: "There is no future for the people of Israel (the collective term for the Jewish people) without the land of Israel." We must accept as truth that there is a strong link between the People Israel and the Land Israel, that the two are bound to- gether imperishably. But it is equally as true that Israel must view itself as being insepar- able from the Golah, from the Diaspora. It is only in such a partnership that both can benefit; it is only in such a unity that Israel's position can be protected. That is how it has been prior to Israel's founding, during its rebirth and for many years thereafter. Just because Israel now is prosperous economic- ally does not assure it the strength of being able to survive on its own resources and its own merits. One never knows what political aid Israel may peed, and the Diaspora is ready to be of aid to the people that has dis- played such courage and such immense great- ness in establishing statehood and in assur- ing security. * * * While David Ben-Gurion had gone so far as to assert that the only true Zionist is he who settles in Israel—splitting seriously on the issue with American Zionists who have denied such definitions—Ben-Gurion, as a result, having left the Zionist movement— Prime Minister Eshkol does not go that far. Nevertheless, he has quoted Cyrus the Great, the Persian king who facilitated the rebuild- ing of the Second Temple in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago, who, inviting Jews to return to the Holy Land after the first Exile, said, as re- corded in Chronicles in the Old Testament: "Who is there who feels the responsibility for the fate of his people—let him come up." American Jewry's relationships with Esh- kol are of the most cordial, and American Jews cooperate in efforts to provide Israel with a measure of economic security, enab- ling the Jewish State also to absorb the tens of thousands of immigrants who arrive yearly from lands of oppression. On the question of Zionist interpretation—whether the only real Zionists are those who go to Israel—as Ben- Gurion has said—or whether, in Eshkol's words, the people Israel can only survive through the Land Israel, there is certain to be serious controversy between American and Israeli Jews. There is. however, a positive response from the 120 American delegates to the Con- gress—the second largest next to Israel's— to this appeal by Prime Minister Eshkol: "The basic instrument for the creation of a Jewish consciousness and a Jewish way of life is Hebrew education. We must begin from the positive precepts incumbent upon the individual Zionist. Zionists — learn He- brew! Teach your sons and daughters Hebrew, bring them direct contact with the Book of Books and the history of Israel in its sources, with our modern literature and the cultural values that are being created in the Home- land! Let every Zionist first of all give a na- tional Jewish education, a Hebrew education, to his own sons and daughters. Even in itself and by itself, that will be a powerful lever for the beginning of a transformation in the character of the Jewish dispersion." One would imagine that on this score, too, new vistas have been discovered in Jeru- salem. The fact is that the thinking of Eshkol has been the hope of American Jewry, and what he advocated two weeks ago has been the plea of our communities for more than a decade. In our own community and in several others, the Zionists spearheaded the estab- lishment of Day School. They have encour- aged private investments and are among the top community leaders. There is much more to be attained, a great deal more to aspire to. But such aspira- tions are not to be expected through con- demnations, from sniping, from those who predict doom for Jewish communities. And American Jewry seems to have been chosen for unjustified rebuke! . On this score, too, we need understanding. We need recognition of the sound thinking of American Jewry which appreciates the needs and strives to attain them. Eisendrath's 'Can Faith Survive?' a Challenging Query for Jews Can Jews unite — and can they survive? Will success spoil the synagogue? These and many other questiOns are posed by Dr. Maurice N. Eisendrath, president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, in "Can Faith Survive?", published by McGraw-Hill (330 W. 42nd, NY 36). As the questions indicate. Dr. Eisendrath has gone into a deep study of many facets of Jewish life, not necessarily the religious questions alone. Can Jews unite? Under this heading Rabbi Eisendrath discusses the many efforts that have been made to create a unified American Jewish community, through the American Jewish Conference, the National Community Relations Advisory Council and other undertak- ings, and he expresses the belief that "a new day will yet dawn for the entire Jewish community — a day in which the loyalty of each Jew will not be consumed by his particular organizational segment but will reach out with pride to an overarching expression of Jewish interests, ideals and values . . . " But he does not hesitate to excoriate those who stand in the way of genuine unity, and he expresses this criticism: "Since every Jewish organization is autonomous, each has a right, if it chooses, to reject cooperation with other groups in the pursuit of common causes. The American Jewish Committee cannot be compelled to rejoin the NCRAC, for example. But neither does the American Jewish community have an obligation to subsidize and reward intransigence. If the American Jewish Committee derived its funds from its own members, it could thumb its nose at the larger Jewish community. But that is not the case. It receives the bulk of its funds from community-wide Jewish welfare efforts. from Jews of all segments of Jewish life. The tragedy is not merely that one or another Jewish body re- fuses every request for cooperation. It is that the entire Jewish community has not yet had the courage to say: you choose to go it alone financially as well! Until such courageous discipline is ex- ercised, the total Jewish community is, in effect, rewarding isolationism and penalizing those who cherish cooperation and community." This is one of the most outspoken and most courageous statements uttered in some time. Can faith survive? Dr. Eisendrath is "embattled" with orthodoxy, he rejects false dogmas, he has a kind word for "Mordecai Kaplan's iconoclasm," and warns: "Any religion which isolates itself from the swiftly changing drama of human experience dooms itself to irrelevance and decay." He believes "our generation would respond to a religious faith which, while never offending reason, affords each human being the opportunity to fulfill the potential of his own personality by searching constantly for the ultimate context in which he, as a child of God, belongs, and which takes God as goad to the good and ethical life ...." Dr. Eisendrath calls for greater emphasis on Jewish values "of learning, piety, family relations and social justice." The key to Jewish survival," he says, "is not the folk-ways of the Jews but the faith of the Jew. Judaism, not Jewishness, is the central pillar of Jewish continuity." com- He urges "a strengthening of the bonds between the Jewish It is only through mutual understanding, munities of the United States and Israel, the two most dynamic Jewish through recognition of the soundness of communities in the world. Such a strengthening will require a frank American Jewry, that there can be a coopera- re-evaluation of the role of Zionism, which has already achieved itS tive effort with world Jewry. objectives. It will also require that nationalism must not become the of archaic Orthodoxy in But one must not place the emphasis on religion of Israel and that the stranglehold be broken, permitting a free expression of diverse religious disappearance. We strive for survival, but Israel practices in the Holy Land." we do not accept epitaphs at a time when Of interest also is Dr. Eisendrath's suggestion for a "radical r9- we are exerting all energies to strengthen evaluation of Jewish education in America which has thus far failed our ranks. to cope with the needs of Jewish survival." He urges the exposing of "the blatant limitations of the one-day-a-week Sunday School, as well Let there be realism in Jewish planning as the dangers involved in the trend toward Jewish day (or parochial) and thinking. It is doubtful whether any Thus he takes a stand against the newly-emerging group of Jewish community will accept negativism, schools." Reform rabbis who strongly favor the day school idea. He will no even if it stems from the neighborhood of doubt meet with much opposition to his stand which calls instead for Mount Zion. Indeed, "Out of Zion shall come "daring experimentation with summer camping, electronic teaching forth the Law, and the Word of the Lord methods, improved teacher training and curricula materials." While his views will not be acceptable, and he offers many ideas from Jerusalem," but that Word and that and Law will have its strength only when all that will not be generally endorsed, his book inspires thinking search Israel affirms and reaffirms it. The American Jewish community reaffirms it. discussion and as such it is of immense value in the current for renewed strength for Jewish survival.